Picture courtesy of Beaumaris CC. Noah Kelly keeps wicket for Melbourne club Beaumaris.
Alongside my training and playing with Beaumaris this winter, I’ve taken on a coaching role with the club, which I’m really enjoying.
It’s an assistant kind of role with the focus on batting.
We have a head coach, a bowling coach, a fielding coach and me, who will help any of the lads if they’re struggling with anything.
I’m basically just another pair of hands who can offer advice through some of things that have helped me so far batting-wise. I’ll also be on hand to throw balls to anyone who needs it through the week.
It’s a lot of fun, and it just adds that variety to what you do.
My main focus out here is my training during the week. I’ve got a very clear plan of where I want to be when March and our pre-season tour rolls around. Then, I guess Saturdays are just a by-product of that.
If I’m training hard enough, my results will come – they should hopefully naturally look after themselves.
I’ve got a couple of 70s since I last blogged – one in a T20 and one on a Saturday as well.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Yorkshire’s emerging wicketkeeper-batter Noah Kelly.
I’ve been opening the batting in the T20s and the one-day stuff. In the two-day red-ball games, I’ve then been batting at three. I think if I wasn’t keeping, I’d maybe open in the red-ball stuff as well. But, with time on feet with the keeping, it just makes more sense to give me that bit of extra time off the ground.
I enjoy batting in both positions, but I love being at the top of the order, especially against the white ball.
It’s the best place to bat with the powerplays, and you give yourself the most amount of time to get in and make a score.
It’s been frustrating results wise. We aren’t having the season we hoped for. But, fingers crossed, things will turn for us soon.
In terms of the coaching, I guess that’s something which could become an option for me once my playing days are over. But I’m still trying to figure that plan out at the minute.
That’s why it’s good to do things like this with Beaumaris, who have been brilliant with me.
I did a leadership course with the PCA last winter, and I did some commentary on the Yorkshire live stream over the summer. It’s just about trying out different things to see where I land when time is called on my cricket.
What a run of form Will Luxton has been enjoying here in Melbourne, for Greenvale. Three successive hundreds! It’s just fantastic.
Picture by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images. Noah Kelly has hailed Will Luxton following his run of three successive club cricket centuries for Greenvale in Melbourne.
I’ve been watching some of the highlight videos, and it’s been vintage Will. He plays with such power, and those pull shots of his are incredible.
He’s faced some good attacks as well, with a few Victorian state players playing. In one of the games, he played against the seamer Xavier Crone, who played against the Lions recently over in Perth. And he was launching him.
We speak about it a lot, but Luxy is definitely one of the cleanest ball strikers in the country.
I actually messaged him after his third hundred and said, ‘You’re not real, well batted’. And he just put, ‘Thank you, sir’ with two laughing emojis. That was it.
He’s not really a massive talker on cricket, but I think that helps him. He stays so level. He won’t have thought too much about scoring three hundreds in a row, it will be more about the chance to bat again and score more runs.
I also saw that Fin Bean scored 140-odd quite recently, and he’s been playing alongside Ben Sears at Melbourne University.
I’m pretty sure that the schedule in New Zealand meant that he was struggling to get an opportunity to play some short-form cricket. I believe his coach knows the coach at Melbourne Uni, so they got him in for a couple of weeks before his next assignment back home.
It’s pretty strange how things work in that regard. Him and Beany were playing together for Yorkshire in April and May, and now they’re playing together for a club side in Australia.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Ben Sears, one of Yorkshire’s overseas players in 2025, is playing club cricket with Fin Bean at present, for Melbourne University.
There are some really good attacks in that Premier grade competition. James Pattinson is still playing for Dandenong, Glenn Maxwell played at the weekend for Fitzroy-Doncaster, Jake Fraser-McGurk will be playing for Richmond this weekend and Matt Short for Melbourne, I’m pretty sure. Will Sutherland also turns out for Prahran when he can.
That first Ashes Test at Perth was such a strange Test Match. I was keeping my head down for a bit with the Beaumaris lads. But, after day one, I was fine. I was quite happy to be having a chat in our group chats and stuff like that. Then, it turned again.
It was book-ended by two bits of brilliance from Mitchell Starc and Travis Head.
Head looked like the only player who looked at ease on that wicket. Brooky obviously scored a fifty, but he just couldn’t kick on.
England bowled brilliantly in that first innings, and Australia’s attack isn’t as formidable as it used to be. We just need someone to go big in Brisbane.
If we can get it to 1-1, that will be a massive statement. But going 2-0 with Cummins and Hazlewood to come back, that’s obviously a pretty dangerous place to be in for England.
I’m actually going to the Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney Tests with my brother, Reuben, who is out here living in Sydney at the moment.
I’m flying out to Adelaide for a couple of days before flying back to play on the Saturday. He’s then coming to me for Boxing Day, and I’m going to him for New Year.
Picture by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images. Noah Kelly is heading to the Ashes Tests at Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, where he will watch Yorkshire team-mates Joe Root and Harry Brook in action for England.
We’re in with the Barmy Army for Adelaide, and I’m pretty sure we’ll see some familiar faces – Yorkshire supporters, people we recognise.
It should be good fun.
